Galway have suffered a big early season set-back with Kevin Cooney, a versatile forward who really became a key figure last season, ruled out until the closing stages of the championship.
The Sarsfields clubman, son of Galway legend Joe and brother of Joseph and John who are also in the current Galway squad, suffered a bad hamstring injury in the Walsh Cup final loss to Wexford a week ago.
He underwent surgery on Friday, will miss the entire league campaign and the best hope is that he is back for the closing stages of the championship.
''Yeah, it’s a long-term injury," confirmed manager Henry Shefflin. "Bad as last Sunday was, to get the news on Tuesday that he had done a bad hamstring... Surgery was completed on Friday. It’s going to be a long road for Kevin, a four or five-month job.
"If it was a couple of weeks later then he would be definitely gone for the season. We just have to see how it goes and how it progresses during the season."
Cooney enjoyed an impressive 2023 campaign for Galway, and was particularly effective when moved to full-forward in the final quarter of the Leinster final, turning the tide in favour of the westerners until Cillian Buckley's last-gasp strike.
"He was eager this year to push on, I wouldn’t say a different level, but add more maturity to his game and become a focal point for us up front. He offers so much in sense of speed, skill, able to catch, able to play wing-forward, corner-forward, full-forward, so he brings a lot of different areas of strength to the game.
"Look, it is very disappointing for him, first and foremost, and for the group it is disappointing as well. But, look, that’s sport and other teams will have those as well," added Shefflin.
Meanwhile, Conor Whelan has been installed as captain for the 2024 season, Shefflin confirmed.
Whelan, Galway's only current All-Star, marked his first outing of 2024 with a trademark goal to the roof of the net from a tight angle when he came off the bench as they thrashed Westmeath by 4-31 to 0-12 in their opening Allianz League Division 1B clash on Saturday.
Shefflin has asked the Kinvara clubman to lead them in 2024, stepping up from vice-captain to take charge from Daithi Burke, who skippered them in Shefflin’s first two seasons in charge.
Conor Cooney, who has captained St Thomas’ to the last six Galway county titles and last month led them to their second All-Ireland club title, has been appointed vice-captain.
